The present invention relates to a brake for a wheel mounted on an associated wheel support and more particularly to a vehicle wheel, comprising a brake drum and at least one brake guide saddle in the drum, which saddle is supported on the support and has a bore for a piston arranged to be operated by a fluid under pressure and guide lugs projecting in a direction parallel to the axis of the bore, such lugs delimiting at least one guide channel in the peripheral direction of the wheel in order to receive a respective brake element which is able to be displaced by the piston and preferably consists of a brake pad and a carrier plate.
An arrangement of this type has been previously proposed in the French patent No. 2,253,400 (Application No. 73 43204), in the case of which the two lateral brake guide saddles are part of the wheel support casting. This integral construction however is not easy to service, since if any repair should prove necessary near one brake guide saddle it is necessary to detach the brake drum in any event. If a brake guide saddle becomes unserviceable and has to be replaced it is then necessary for practically the entire wheel support to be replaced. Added to this there is the feature in the known arrangement that the guide lugs formed on the respective brake guide saddles are in the form of cantilever supports which are not joined together outside guide saddle block. The guide channel receiving the respective associated brake element in the brake guide saddle is in this case open at its end. The result of this may be that the brake element may drift towards the wheel axis and this may have an undesired effect on the functional reliability and length of life of the arrangement. However, a particular disadvantage is that owing to the absence of a terminal connection of the two guide lugs when braking takes place it is only the guide lug which is to the front in terms of the direction of rotation of the wheel which bears the load, while the guide lug which is to the rear in terms of the direction of rotation is practically free of load. The outcome of this is an extremely uneven load on the two guide lugs and this is also hardly conducive to the reliability of operation and length of life of the arrangement.